Safe and reliable operation of a railroad system may be dependent upon the integrity of the undercarriage components of the vehicles travelling over the rails. Worn or damaged train wheel bearings may increase the rolling friction of an axle requiring an increase of power to move the train. In addition, worn or damaged bearings may cause excessive wear to the train axle and, in the case of failure of the bearing, may even cause the axle to lock up, preventing rotation of the wheel and thus resulting in a potential fire hazard due to the heat build up and potential sparking caused by friction of the locked wheel scraping along the rail.
Bearing temperatures may be scanned by sensing a temperature of the wheel bearing indirectly through a bearing box surrounding the wheel bearing on a rail car of a train. For example, infrared radiation (IR) sensors may be mounted along a rail to detect IR energy emitted by an outer wheel bearing of passing rail cars. The emissions of IR energy may be indicative of a temperature of the wheel bearing.
The bearing temperatures may be scanned by sensors that may comprise sensing elements which may be aimed at different parts of a target scanning area of a rail vehicle undercarriage component. The IR data obtained may be used to generate respective scanning signature waveform data corresponding to each different region. The sensor may be oriented such that at least one of the elements receives unobstructed infrared emissions from the undercarriage component of a rail vehicle passing the sensor. A control circuit for the sensors may cause an alarm to be raised if the IR data is indicative of temperature that is higher than a pre-set temperature threshold.
However, the sensors may have failures in performance which may not be detectable by the sensors or by the control circuit connected to the sensors. A failure may be the misalignment in a sensing element such that the element is no longer aimed at a target area of a rail vehicle undercarriage component. Another failure may be an incorrect data being generated based on the IR emissions.
The present disclosure is directed, at least in part, to improving or overcoming one or more aspects of the prior art system.